like to see some photos

Hey Bindlestiff.  Hope you can post some photos of your layout for all to see.  I liked how you started your post!  I won't show my wife, or she'll make me take her to Hawaii!

My wife and I are heading to Hawaii this fall.

It started just by trading my week of timeshare at Dana Point for a week on Maui.  We ended up taking two weeks 3 days on the big island, 2 days on Kaui, 7 days on Maui, and two 3 days 2 nights in Honolulu.  I'd also like to see some pics when you have a chance.  How big is your layout room?

No local train shops, IIRC

When I was stationed there 20 years ago there was one hobby/train shop down off Kalakaua, not too far from Waikiki. When I was there last year I didn't get a chance to see if it was still there - but my online searches weren't encouraging.

Do you have to order everything or buy it on trips back to the 48?

Train stuff on Kauai

The last time I was in Honolulu looking for train stores was about a decade ago.  I think they are both gone.  There is a small store on Kauai, the island where I live that carries some train stuff, mostly a collectible toy store - nice people though. Most of my stuff I either brought with me from California, mostly from Just Trains in Concord or The Train Shop in Santa Clara.  The only shop I realy liked was Tom Cole's place in Montclair, Oakland (it was also close by), I had already relocated to Hawaii but did shop there about a month before he gave up his lease - a real nice guy.

Two things changed the hobby for me. One was the explosion of highly detailed products coming from China at very reasonable prices, especially when the greed and optimism of the manufacturers led to significant overproduction and discount prices.  The second was Ebay which allowed access to items I couldn't find on my hit or miss trips to the hobby store.  I kind of eased my way into Ebay at first seeking a Revell farmhouse - I just had to have one but then I got kind of hooked.   I would search on Ebay and come accross Kato, Atlas, Genesis and of course P2K Locos, new in box, going for about half of retail.  Often these products were being liquidated by hobby shops going out of business.  I suppose it became unfeasible for smaller shops to carry the huge array of new product now availble.  That coupled with the now online access to the inventory of the entire nation led to a maelstrom that sucked them down and out of existence.

In that I have a vast (at least to me and especially my wife) accumulation of train hobby materials my current needs are quite meager.  I just finished a push to acquire and install about 60 Tortoises and the related DPDT switches and LEDs for their control panels which I call Turnout Management Panels or TMPs but that was for me anyway an extraordinary happening.  I bought the Tortoises on Ebay and the electrical stuff from Digikey (who get it to Hawaii in four or five days).  I financed these purchases by selling a bit of my accumulation on Ebay.

Modeling California in the Great State of Hawaii

A mixed freight running by the sawmill at Red Bluff. The trestle and tunnel behind the sawmill are on the branch line to the way to Mountain Park. 

Modeling California in the Great State of Hawaii

The city of BayPort - on a peninsula 14'6" x 6'6".  Three trains are parked at the passenger terminal. The freight yard is partially visible in the left of the picture.  Once again a work in progress. In fact anything that I post is a work in progress.  My intention is to vary the time period of the layout starting with the transitional period that was the heyday of the streamliners hence the Union Station. So far though it's just easier to run eighties diesels while I'm shaking the thing out.

Modeling California in the Great State of Hawaii

A freight passes Bridgewater farm before crossing the viaduct into Rocklin, a seaside community at Wolf's Cove.  Another exits the Ridgeline tunnel before crossing into Red Bluff.  The tunnels above are on the branachline to Mountain Park (a  reverse loop  above the staging behind the backdrop).  The coloring is off in every picture because of the camera's flash. Boomer Flats is just behind the ridge - you can just make out the top of the water tower, freight shed and coal mine.

Modeling California in the Great State of Hawaii

I think a nice shot, I'd always wanted a through truss with a plate girder on either side.  I think mine is from Vollmer with the plate girders from Atlas with decks from some trainset bridges.  I'm building a model railroad, not a model of a railroad.  Although mine is entirely prototypical, I just model a parallel universe that does things my way and looks exactly like this.

Modeling California in the Great State of Hawaii

A mixed freight snakes through the mountain town of Boomer Flats, at one time the highest elevation on the layout.  Like everything else on my layout it is a work in progress.  The town is  built on a removeable styrofoam covered plywood base.  Likewise the hills on the left are removeable styrofoam creations.  The white gash in the forground is from sawing out the trackboard to mount switch machines.  My general modus operati is three steps forward, two steps back. The flash of the camera makes the colors a little weird.

Bayport Rocks!

I really like your downtown city scene a lot, especially the skyscrapers - are they from kits or did you scratchbuild them?

Bachman City Scenes

I'm glad you like Bayport.  The other side is more pedestrian friendly.  The skyscrapers are from a series of six buildings that Bachman created about a decade ago called "City Scenes" (HO only).  What you see in the picture is the Trade Tower and the Metropolitan Building.  There was also the Ambassador Hotel, a Savings and Loan, a Department Store, a Five and Dime Store and a bus station.  They were lavishly produced, excellent die work by Heljan of Denmark, packaged with decals, street accessories and a great set of sidewalks.  I think that they really blew the wad.  What they didn't have was a marketing budget.  They were a couple of announcements and a less than complimentary  review in ModelRailroader (the author couldn't see what use they be on a Appalachian coal hauler). And maybe they were a little too rich for the market.  The retail on the two towers was better that $100 a pop.  A year later Trainworld had them for about half and my wife got be a set as a Christmas present.  A year after that, Bachman must have dumped their entire inventory 'cause they were going on Ebay for about $20. I bought an extra set 'cause I do that with things I like.  I just sold some of them to help finance the Tortoises on my layout. I doubt if they will ever be run again, unless Walthers acquires the dies.

Rip Van Winkle.

It is often the case that a considerable amount of time elapses between the time that I acquire a train item and I actually do something with it. When it's time, I wake up to play with that "new toy" and it's already five years old!

Lately I have been assembling freight car kits- covered hoppers and gondolas from Proto 2000, 50' box cars from E&C (also LBF), 50' box cars from Roundhouse as well as a few older Mckean items.

I really like the Proto 2000 covered hoppers, even if they don't have photo-etched roof walks.  The are just so much nicer than the  Athearn  blue box stuff.   I like they way they look mixed in with Accurail covered hoppers. I built about ten of them, UP, ATSF, and BNSF, from timesaver kits that I paid about $5 apiece for. Went together real well. Occasionally would derail inexplicably.  I traced the problem to the trucks hanging up on some of the brake line parts. Now my cars are a little less detailed but go around my 30" curves without incident.

I bought the E&C (and LBF) stuff because I liked the look of it - SP and UP. Nicely painted with realistically subdued lettering.  One would think that the engineering for an HO scale box car would be worked out by now (or by five years ago) but alas.  I found their bolster and coupler pocket interesting - as in "Why the heck did they do it that way?".  I think that I would like to find a normal drop in underframe for the ten cars or maybe just cutting down the rather lengthy center post will help them track better. I gave up on the "conical" wheels that came with the kits and used some P2K wheelsets.  Getting the detail parts off the sprues was another interesting proposition.

The McKean kits - Montana Rail Link, Boise Cascade, North West Hardwoods and Georgia Pacific - should add some interest.  Another challenge of less than adequate engineering

I did manage to find some sheet lead  on island (at $6 a square foot) to bring the box cars up to NMRA standards  (4.75 ounces for a 50' boxcar) so things move along.

Visit to California

 I find myself on a three week visit to the San Francisco Bay Area. By golly, I can still drive on the freeways.

I was given half a dozen Model Railroader magazines from 1981 and 1983, before the digital revolution took hold so let's just say production values and graphics have improved tremendously.  Attention spans have shortened - a seven part article by Gordon Odegard on building a brass mikado, a multi part article on building a wireless throttle.  What struck me is the vast number of ads from hobbyist manufacturers- some guy making something and trying to find a market for it.

I did find a good answer to one of my 1000 nagging questions (I'd like to post a list some day) namely "Why do some of the Proto 2000 GP9's have wings on both ends?" Mine came from a clearout by Klein on Ebay and for all I know they were just some overzealous paint work by the Chinese manufacturer.  So I am gratified to learn that indeed the SP did indeed paint some of their GP9 Black Widows with wings on both ends to indicate bidirectional control. At last I can run them with full confidence. And I only have 999 questions needing answers.